


Crystallization

by ANarrativeCloud



Category: Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Alternate Ending, BAMF Aerith, Crossover, Gen, Lifestream being an amazing concept, Post-Canon, Prologue to a series maybe, world building
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-02
Updated: 2020-02-02
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:40:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22528735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ANarrativeCloud/pseuds/ANarrativeCloud
Summary: When the end comes, there is a different beginning. Noctis is Eos and Eos is Noctis as Gaia is Minerva and Minerva is Gaia.
Relationships: Noctis Lucis Caelum & Aerith Gainsborough
Comments: 1
Kudos: 28





	Crystallization

At the end of it all, there was light.

Before that though, there was the endless _nothing_ of time as he slept inside the crystal.

Noctis wakes up once, inside a rundown church, floating in the middle of a small pond surrounded by lilies in various colors. He had stayed there silently, until he hears her. Jostling him and showing him the memories that happened in that church. There were kids playing in the pond, a tall black-haired man that reminded him of Gladio lurking by the door, and several colorful people and creatures as well.

It was more the memory of the place than any single person.

It made him feel somewhat homesick.

It’s why he finds himself in the place in between, a place that isn’t really a place, but a remnant of a memory.

“You’re brooding again, Little Star.” Aerith greets with a smile.

 _She_ had been a surprise.

“Hello to you too.”

More so the things that she tells him about.

“Do you know where the crystal comes from, Little Star?”

“Stop calling me that.” Noctis grumbles.

“You are, though. A tiny star, that is.” Aerith insists. “And names have power, especially here. I’m not the only one in here looking for you. Some of them are rather mean, you know.”

“Then why can I call you ‘ _Aerith’_ but you can’t call me my name?” Noctis huffs.

“I’ve already made peace with the ones who would have looked for me.” Aerith rebuts. “Plus, I’m more powerful than them, you know.”

Noctis _does_ know. He’s seen her bat away daemons larger than buildings that try to encroach the church every now and then with light taps as if scolding them for being naughty children.

He wonders why the Astrals didn’t intervene with fate when they could have done it with their own hands.

“The Astrals aren’t the type of divine that you think.” Aerith says gently, as if reading his mind, and knowing her, she probably was. “If you put in simple terms, they’re like the predecessors of your race, a different brand of beings before humans existed. They’re just as flawed as humans, and with the amount of power they have at their fingertips, their mistakes affect more than we can. The echoes of their actions are bigger and have a wider reach than a normal human.”

Noctis just hums. He’s never really been interested in history, but Aerith had a way of making him listen even when he didn’t want to. Ignis would love to know her secret.

“Let me tell you a story then, of the Calamity that fell from the skies.”

And she does. Noctis listens.

It’s a story that filled with tragedies but it didn’t end as one. It’s hopeful, but it also ended in a way that he didn’t expect.

“Then if it wasn’t a tragedy, why did it end?” Noctis asks curiously. “You mentioned before that your Planet had died, and everything that remained looked for another place to live in,”

“The Geostigma that came from the skies didn’t end as we had thought. The Planet didn’t have enough strength to keep fending it off.” Aerith tells him grimly. “The Lifestream is the collection of souls of our Planet and there are those that were infected that rejoined the Lifestream. Our Lifestream had fled the planet it settled in and looked for another one. This one. Your Planet.”

“The stigma is the Starscourge.” Noctis realizes.

“The Starscourge is the _part_ of the Lifestream corrupted by the stigma.” Aerith explains to him. “When the Lifestream settled itself here, it only started to realize that the stigma wasn’t gone. So to preserve itself, it started crystallizing the parts that weren’t infected. I’ve lost some friends because of it, you know.”

“They were daemonified?” Noctis sucks in a breath. They may be spirits or essences or whatever, but that had to be gruesome. He’s seen what Niflheim did to its people. “I’m sorry.”

Aerith smiles gently. “Thank you, but that’s already a long time ago.”

Noctis could see heavy grief in her eyes and it makes him feel guilty for bringing it up int thee first place.

“We failed the first time. The Crystal is the only part of our Lifestream left.” Aerith tells him. “It was the sins of our people that did this to our planet, to our Lifestream, so it is our responsibility to end it.”

Noctis sees resolve in her eyes but he didn’t understand at that point what she had meant.

“Bahamut has done well while the crystal is asleep.” Aerith says with a far away look in her eyes. “The crystallization made the Lifestream sleep and granting the power to use the Lifestream was a bold move.”

“Dad said that Bahamut was the one that granted our bloodline the ability to use the power of the crystal…” Noctis muses.

“All of the souls had fallen asleep.” Aerith tells him. “Bahamut had been the only soul that was awake inside the Lifestream. I think it broke him a little, the duty to protect the last of his world must have been heavy. I regret not being able to help. If only I had been…”

Noctis shakes his head. “No. None of this is your fault.”

Aerith just smiles. “I know. It is my duty anyway. The Astrals have done their part.”

“What _are_ the Astrals? Are they also from your Lifestream?”

Aerith blinks slightly and then shakes her head. “They _were_ also a part of the Lifestream but they were also strong enough, and wise enough to feel the darkness encroaching upon them, so they cut the bonds chaining them from the Lifestream and learned to manifest without the support of the Lifestream.”

“Were they also alive before? Like you?”

“They were. Though they’re far older than even _me_.” Aerith says conspiratorially, eyes glinting in mischief. “They existed during the time of my ancestors. Their essences remain the same, but they are not the same beings from my history. Your Astrals are just an incarnation of the spirits that existed from beyond our time.”

Then without warning, his consciousness fades and Aerith disappears from his sight.

.

He had never told anyone about his time inside the crystal, not that he had time to tell them about it in the first place, but he hadn’t. It felt like so long, like ages had gone past him but he was only aware for bits and pieces at the time.

“ _Will you help me?_ ” Noctis remembers asking her.

“ _I can’t._ ” Aerith shakes her head. “ _This is your trial, Little Star._ ”

Noctis had stayed silent.

“ _We will take the scourge. Eos already has a Lifestream of its own. It’s small right now, and only a few souls sustain it, but it’s there._ ”

Noctis then realizes it.

It was him, and all his predecessors, all those that they shared their magic with, all those that have been touched. All the Astrals that have formed covenants. All those souls.

It’s the start of the Lifestream of Eos.

“ _Congratulations, Noctis._ ”

Gaia deals the final blow.

The Scourge, no, the _stigma,_ is gone.

Eos takes its first breath of freedom.

“Thank you, Aerith.”

When the Scourge disappears, Noctis labors.

(He saves the one that was Imprisoned by fate, the twisted reflection a Chosen King revealed before his time. He does not regret.)

(He does not wake those that should wake.)

He starts what should have been done before.

(This is his burden to bear.)

Noctis connects the souls of the world as it had before. He weaves threads of the lives of Eos. The dead do not need be buried. Their bodies turn to light and returns to the sea of life.

It’s only a matter of time.

_Noctis is Eos_ and _Eos is Noctis_ as _Gaia is Minerva_ and _Minerva is Gaia_.

Then.

Then, he stops.

And rewinds.

(Minerva is still Gaia.)

But Noctis.

Noctis is just Noctis.

“ _You have walked tall._ ” Eos echoes, his lips reminiscent of a father’s proud smile. “ _Now it is time to lay down your burden and **live.**_ ”

A millennium passes as Noctis sleeps, and he is born again.

The line of Kings has long perished, but magic still sleeps under the skin of the worthy.

**M.E. 1723**

* * *

On August 30, M.E. 1723, Noctis Concilio is born to Aulea Nox and Regi Concilio.

He is named after the King of Light, and the Bearer of Life.

When Regis picks him up, he _remembers._

Eos’s blood _thrums_ in delight.

The Age of Magic begins.


End file.
